Who are you at the core?

Who are you at your core? In a sense you were created by God to expand his work of beauty and truth and goodness within His Kingdom. The health of your spirit, the health of your soul, the health of your core will determine everything in your life.

God has entrusted each one of us with the stewardship over our gifts, our talents, our intellect, our passions, our capabilities, and everything we have to create something that makes the world better. To live life fully so that we may add to the beauty, truth, and purpose that God intends for His Kingdom.

There are so many times in life where life doesn't give us what we have expected, and somewhere along the way we lose our connections between the actions that we take and the motives that fuel our lives. We humans are environmental. We absorb things and we take things in and they shape us, they inform us and they form us. All of which can affect who we are at our core.

So let's look at one simple little verse in Proverbs, chapter 4. Solomon writes these words, "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." Normally when we look at this proverb we concentrate on the first half and how we need to pay close attention to all that we put inside of ourselves - what we read; what we watch; who we hang out with; and where we hang out. And it is true that we need to pay close attention to what we put in because that will affect your life, that will affect the health of your soul and that will affect who you are at your core.

So whatever you do in life - whether career, or trade, or a skill that you perfect, whatever you do in life to add to yourself must be guarded because it affects who you are at your core. And as Solomon says, your heart is the wellspring of life.

I think a lot of us have an external sense of happiness, an external sense of fulfillment. We are looking for fulfillment. We are looking for satisfaction. We are looking for significance and success. We hope that someone or something outside of us will bring us life.

However, what you are looking for out there, you need to bring out from within. It is your soul and it is your heart, it is your spirit that is the wellspring of life. But the source of life comes from the inside out. The source of well-being comes from within.

Who you are at your core is determined by the source from which you draw life. Solomon says that you have a source for life that is available to you, and it is your heart and if you will guard it you can be fully alive. Determine to live a healthy spiritual life so that you will add to the purposes of God's Kingdom.

• Sue Musselman is the children's pastor at Capital Christian Center.